The invention relates to a wound treatment device for covering and in some applications heating skin lesions; surgical wounds and the like. The wound treatment device includes a wound cover which can support a detachable planar wound heater. The wound covering provides a non-contact wound treatment volume over the wound area. The planar heater supplies or reflects heat from the wound area. The invention also relates to and addresses methods for making the wound covering and to methods for treating a wound.
One traditional method of treating a wound involves the placement of a sterile gauze over the wound area and holding the gauze in place with adhesive tape. This type of wound dressing has numerous shortcomings. The wound is not fully isolated from the environment and can exchange bacteria with the environment. The gauze can adhere to the wound area interfering with the healing process which is undesirable as well. This traditional form of bandage does not control the thermal environment of the wound and this is undesirable as well.
Although wound heaters and non-contact wound coverings are known they are not generally accepted for several reasons. Wound coverings which include a rigid enclosure forming a cavity that covers the wound are usually adhesively attached to the skin of the patient with a relatively inelastic material. This results in the inability of the wound covering to accommodate patient motion. Usually patient motion will cause the rigid wound covering to peel-off of the patient""s skin. The traditional solution to this problem has been to use a more aggressive adhesive tape or the like to more firmly attach the wound covering to the skin. This solution to the problem results in an uncomfortable bandage.
The traditional wound covering does not permit close control over the temperature of the wound area. Prior art heated bandages which rely on a non-contact enclosure may use point source type heaters which result in variations in radiant heat flux depending on the location of the heater within the enclosure. Therefore there is a need for a non-contact bandage which can be used to control the environment of the wound and which may be reliably and comfortably attached to the skin.
A treatment device for treating tissue without contacting the tissue includes an attachment portion in a first plane, a treatment portion in a second plane, and a transition portion connecting the attachment portion and the treatment portion. There are first and second flexible connections where the transition portion is connected to the attachment portion and to the treatment portion, respectively. There is a minimum interconnecting distance defined by a straight line between a first point on the first flexible connection and a second point that corresponds to the first point on the second flexible connection. The length of the transition portion exceeds the length of the straight line. Embodiments are disclosed wherein the first flexible connection forms a first perimeter in the first plane, and the second flexible connection forms a second perimeter in the second plane, with the embodiments corresponding to the relative sizes of the first and second perimeter. In one of those embodiments, the second flexible connection is a single attachment point in the second plane.
The treatment device also includes an attachment portion in the first plane, a treatment portion including a cover in the second plane that defines a treatment volume extending between the first and second planes. The treatment portion also includes a flexible, serrated standoff supporting the cover and a flexible transition portion connecting the attachment portion with the treatment portion.
The treatment device also includes an attachment portion in the first plane, a treatment portion having a cover in the second plane for defining a treatment volume that extends between the first and second planes, and an absorptive foam ring that acts between the first plane and the cover, and medicament in the foam ring which is selected from the group including an antibiotic material, and antifungal material, and an antimicrobial material.